Floodwater has caused 1.05 billion baht in damage to 188 rural roads in the South between Dec 1 and Jan 10, an official said on Tuesday.
The number of roads damaged by the floods was 111 in December and 77 more roads were in need of repairs from Jan 1-10, said Rural Roads Department director-general Pisak Jitwiriyawasin.
The roads were in 12 provinces: Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala, Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Trang, Chumphon, Surat Thani, Krabi, Songkhla, Ranong and Prachuap Khiri Khan.
The department would require more than 1 billion baht for the repairs because the damage was expected to rise as the flooding situation in some areas had not eased, said Mr Pisak.
Phatthalung was the province with the highest number of damaged roads (22), followed by Chumphon (11) and Prachuap Khiri Khan (9).
Mr Pisak said officials would be despatched to flood-hit areas to assess the damage in early March after the situation had returned to normal. After that, a proposal would be made for a budget for the repairs.
After the floods recede, emergency repair work would be carried out to allow roadtraffic. At the same time, road signs would be put up to warn motorists of spots where roads were being repaired.
Separately, Thanin Somboon, director-general of the Highways Department, said the flooding in Prachuap Khiri Khan caused damage to 24 sections on five highways. Four of the 24 spots were not passable.
The four sections were: kilometre marker 365 on Highway 4 in Thap Sakae district; kilometre marker 386 on Highway 4 in Bang Saphan district; a section on Highway 3374 in Bang Saphan district; and kilometre marker 8 on Highway 3497 in Bang Saphan district.
Temporary bridges were being built at the first two spots by engineers from the bridge construction and maintenance centres based in Pathum Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department chief Chatchai Promlert had earlier revealed that 25 people had been killed and two missing in widespread flooding in the 12 provinces.
The Bank of Thailand also revealed that as of Tuesday nine commercial bank branches had remained closed: three each of Krungthai (KTB) and Kasikornbank (KBANK), two of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and one of Bangkok Bank (BBL).
